Portable computing devices have grown in popularity and capability. Early uses for portable computing devices were often limited to simple computing tasks such as number manipulation and word processing. Present applications can include advanced graphical rendering, musical composition, movie and music presentation, and more. Computing devices can communicate with other devices, such as peripherals, including printers, keyboards, headsets, and the like, using the Bluetooth® wireless communication protocol.
Bluetooth provides for wireless radio communication between two devices, and is widely supported by device vendors as a way to wirelessly transfer data between devices sold by different vendors. If a user wishes to use a peripheral device, such as a printer, via a Bluetooth connection using the ordinary Bluetooth protocol, the user is expected to set up a connection to the device by making the peripheral discoverable to the device and performing other setup tasks. For example, to configure a Bluetooth-compatible wireless headset for use with a mobile phone, a user performs several steps to “pair” the devices, such as placing the headset in a discovery mode, enabling Bluetooth on the phone, selecting a discovery feature on the phone, and selecting the desired device from a displayed list of available Bluetooth devices that are within communication range of the phone. A device password may also need to be supplied. A similar procedure can be used when establishing a connection between a phone and a printer or other devices. Other variations on this connection process are possible. Once the connection has been established, the information gathered from the user may be stored and used to automatically establish the connection in the future. Data can be sent from the phone to the device, and vice-versa, for the duration of the time that the phone is in communication range of the device, or until the wireless connection is terminated by one of the devices.
Bluetooth connections are one-to-one, i.e., from one device to one other device. Because of the one-to-one nature of the connections, devices communicate directly with each other, and users supply configuration information for each device. The process of setting up the connections can be time-consuming, and may involve asking users for setup information. Users may be asked to perform a series of steps to establish each connection. If a user wishes to connect to a device to which another user is connected, the user is not able to connect to the device until the other user disconnects. Therefore, it would therefore be desirable to simplify the process of establishing connections and communication between Bluetooth devices.